Wednesday, December 16, 2015

In a
last-minute drive to assure European Union partners that it is getting to grips
with a mass influx of refugees, Greece released aerial photographs on Tuesday
of new registration centers for migrants on its northern Aegean islands.

The move is
part of Athens' efforts, ahead of an EU summit starting on Thursday, to rebuff
criticism by Germany and other EU governments that it has done too little to
manage the flow of hundreds of thousands of people arriving on its shores.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Stratfor
laid out on Nov. 11 the potential dangers of Slovenia closing its borders to
migrants, establishing a barrier across the heavily transited Balkan migration
corridor. Two days later, a terrorist attack in Paris led to a hardening of attitudes across
the Continent. In response, the Slovenian government announced Nov. 19 that it
would no longer allow economic migrants — those who are not from war zones such
as Syria and Afghanistan —
to enter its territory. The announcement caused a chain reaction back along the
migration route as Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia, anticipating a backlog
forming in their territories, swiftly closed their own borders. This has left
many migrants stranded along the route, powerless to move forward and now
unable to backtrack.

Monday, October 5, 2015

First
overwhelmed by debt and now overwhelmed by refugees, Greece offers a tempting
target for European leaders left to handle the fallout.

With wounds
only just healing after the euro area agreed to throw Greece another financial
lifeline, the country’s inability to process tens of thousands of refugees
turning up at its doorstep threatens to reopen them all over again. Local Greek
authorities are inundated by some 3,000 arrivals a day, most of whom are
allowed to head north through the Balkans toward Germany and Scandinavia,
sewing political tensions as they go.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

The Greek
government and the UN refugee agency have brought in extra staff and ships to
deal with some 25,000 stranded migrants on the island of Lesbos.

A
processing centre has been also set up on an abandoned football ground to help
the migrants to get to Athens.

A Greek
minister said on Monday Lesbos was "on
the verge of an explosion".

Meanwhile,
hundreds of migrants broke through police lines on Hungary's
border with Serbia and
started walking towards the capital, Budapest.

The
migrants faced down pepper spray used by police as they broke out of a holding
centre in a cornfield and marched down a motorway towards Budapest. They later agreed to be taken by
bus to another reception centre.

Friday, January 24, 2014

ATHENS, Greece — Greek judicial authorities said
Thursday they are investigating the deadly sinking of a migrant boat that was
being towed by a coast guard vessel, as officials denied survivors’ claims that
officers badly mishandled the operation.

The small
fishing boat crammed with 28 people had entered Greece
illegally from Turkey.
The Coast Guard said it was towing the boat to the small Aegean Sea island of Farmakonissi when it capsized and sank
Monday leaving two people dead and another 10 — mostly children — missing and
feared drowned.

Survivors
who arrived in Athens
claimed Thursday the boat was being led at speed to nearby Turkish waters to be
abandoned. They said Coast Guard crew ignored their pleas to take the women and
children on their boat before the accident, and then allegedly stood by as
passengers struggled in rough seas.